The present invention relates to rack mountable T-shirt type bags and more particularly to a bagging system and bag pack construction which facilitate the opening of the next bag in a pack upon removal of a preceding bag from the rack.
It is well known in the art to construct so-called T-shirt type bags from thermoplastic film by forming a gusseted tube of the film and then heat sealing the tube at the beginning and end of preselected lengths thereof. The preselected lengths are then separated and a shaped cutout is made at one end of each length to form an openable bag mouth with handles at each side of the mouth. In accordance with various designs, T-shirt type bags are mounted on a rack providing spaced parallel horizontal arms which extend through openings in the bag handles. A mounting tab is typically provided extending upwardly from the front and back panels of the bag mouth between the handles to facilitate mounting on the rack. Examples of such general construction types are disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,062,170; 4,480,750; and 4,676,378.
It has also been proposed to facilitate the opening of successive bags on the rack by providing a spot of adhesive joining the back panel of each bag with the front panel of the successive bag in the pack. This proposal is, for example, disclosed in the Baxley et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,378. The design in the Baxley et al. patent, however, has not been commercially successful since the application of the glue spot, as illustrated, does not fully open the bag along the arms of the rack and the breaking of the glued bond can produce tearing of the bag in a location where stresses produced by carrying merchandise can propagate a tear and cause bag failure.
Among the several objects of the present invention may be noted the provision of a novel merchandise bagging system; the provision of such a system which utilizes T-shirt type bags inexpensively manufactured from thermoplastic film; the provision of such a system in which the removal of one bag from a pack mounted on a supporting rack will cause the opening of a successive bag in the pack to facilitate filling thereof; the provision of such a system which does not cause weakening of the bags which would lead to failure thereof; the provision of such a system which effects a fairly complete opening of the mouth of a bag upon removal a preceding bag; the provision of such a system which does not cause the generation of litter during a merchandising bagging operation; the provision of such a system which allows successive bags to be easily removed from the rack and pack when filling has been completed; the provision of such a system which is highly reliable; the provision of such a system which is of simple and relatively inexpensive construction. Other objects and features will be in part apparent and in part pointed out hereinafter.